X 3
Right. I went to see X-men 3 with the gang last night. What a letdown. Not even that it was bad (which it was) but that it was completely forgettable. Like it couldn't even be bothered to try and live up to the first two. I'd read a lot of reviews for this movie, and I went into it fairly spoiled, but I still expected it to be better than it was. I guess I still had my hopes up because I AM one of those unabashed Wolverine fangirls, and a lot of the criticism I had read focused on the fact it was Logan, not Scott, who took a central role in the whole Phoenix thing. I'm not huge on the whole Logan/Jean ship, but I figured I could cope with it if it meant more screen time for Hugh Jackman.
As it turns out, I was wrong. Not because of the ship, but because it seemed like the writers and directors decided to give all the characters a personality transplant, and I don't think any of them were improved by the process. Honestly, the only time Wolverine showed any of his old personality was in the danger room scene. Now that's the character I remember.
So yeah - personality transplants. Scott taking off without any explanation? Wolverine giving motivational speeches, and 'working as a team'? Charles running around in Jean's head, completely violating her mind? Magneto being all 'What have I done'? Gah.
As far as the Scott/Logan thing goes, I have a theory. When Logan runs into Scott in the hallway, I think some kind of random personality swap thing occurred. After all, it's only after this that Logan displays his new and improved 'All for one and one for all' attitude. No doubt it's all due to the Phoenix. (Or somehow, someone got hold of one of Machello's body swapping machines, and we just didn't see that scene). Of course, the problem with this theory is that it means that the REAL Wolverine (the one stuck in Scott's body) got himself disintergrated, but I can always fall back on my old standby of 'If there is no body, they aren't dead'. So that solves that plot problem :)
I'm assuming the real reason was that, once they killed Scott, they needed someone to fill his position as leader of the X-men. What I don't understand is why they tried to shoehorn Wolverine into that role, especially since they had Storm waiting in the wings. As well as just handing her the school, it would have given her some much needed character development to show her trying to deal with all her new responsibilties, as well as the death of a friend. And, while we are on the topic of what I would have liked to see with Storm, I would have liked to see her at least express her understanding of Magneto's actions, since she was so anti-cure. Now that would have made for an interesting character arc.
As for Charles, I'm voting for him actually having Jean's permission to put the blocks in place, due to some incident when she lost control and hurt someone. And he just forgot to mention it to Woverine, in the stress of the moment, because he was blaming himself. And the whole transferring himself into another body thing? Well, I can live with a few morally ambiguous actions, especially if they are spur of the moment, I'm-about-to-die-decisions.
As far as Magento went, I'm firmly of the opinion that his 'What have I done' referred to cutting Mystique loose after the loss of her mutation. That's my story, and I'm sticking with it. And WTF was up with moving the entire bridge, so the people standing around on the end could jump off? Dramatic certainly, but also rather stupid. Although, I did like the Charles/Eric interaction - Eric's reaction to Charles death was a solid reminder of the friendship they used to have, and about the only character moment in the entire film which rang true.
Speaking of character moments that didn't work, the whole Rogue/Bobby/Kitty thing was really just a waste of space. I would have much preferred they focused on Rogue's decision to take the cure, since that just got completely brushed over in favour of more explosions.
The whole Phoenix deal - I actually liked the idea of the Phoenix being the unconscious manifestation of Jean's repressed power, since it also presents a good explanation of why she killed Scott. If the Phoenix is driven entirely by emotion, then it makes sense she would have the most difficulty controlling the power around the person she loved the most. I was waiting for someone in the movie to make this connection, but it never came. Actually, I spent a lot of this movie waiting for pay-offs that never came.
In conclusion, nice special effects, and overall was not a patch on the other two. Phew. I feel better now, having got that off my chest.
After everyone left last night, I watched ep seven of Dr Who (thanks![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cloverfizz!), and have to say, it was rather disappointing too. Not bad, just nothing particularly special. Must have been a night for it.
As it turns out, I was wrong. Not because of the ship, but because it seemed like the writers and directors decided to give all the characters a personality transplant, and I don't think any of them were improved by the process. Honestly, the only time Wolverine showed any of his old personality was in the danger room scene. Now that's the character I remember.
So yeah - personality transplants. Scott taking off without any explanation? Wolverine giving motivational speeches, and 'working as a team'? Charles running around in Jean's head, completely violating her mind? Magneto being all 'What have I done'? Gah.
As far as the Scott/Logan thing goes, I have a theory. When Logan runs into Scott in the hallway, I think some kind of random personality swap thing occurred. After all, it's only after this that Logan displays his new and improved 'All for one and one for all' attitude. No doubt it's all due to the Phoenix. (Or somehow, someone got hold of one of Machello's body swapping machines, and we just didn't see that scene). Of course, the problem with this theory is that it means that the REAL Wolverine (the one stuck in Scott's body) got himself disintergrated, but I can always fall back on my old standby of 'If there is no body, they aren't dead'. So that solves that plot problem :)
I'm assuming the real reason was that, once they killed Scott, they needed someone to fill his position as leader of the X-men. What I don't understand is why they tried to shoehorn Wolverine into that role, especially since they had Storm waiting in the wings. As well as just handing her the school, it would have given her some much needed character development to show her trying to deal with all her new responsibilties, as well as the death of a friend. And, while we are on the topic of what I would have liked to see with Storm, I would have liked to see her at least express her understanding of Magneto's actions, since she was so anti-cure. Now that would have made for an interesting character arc.
As for Charles, I'm voting for him actually having Jean's permission to put the blocks in place, due to some incident when she lost control and hurt someone. And he just forgot to mention it to Woverine, in the stress of the moment, because he was blaming himself. And the whole transferring himself into another body thing? Well, I can live with a few morally ambiguous actions, especially if they are spur of the moment, I'm-about-to-die-decisions.
As far as Magento went, I'm firmly of the opinion that his 'What have I done' referred to cutting Mystique loose after the loss of her mutation. That's my story, and I'm sticking with it. And WTF was up with moving the entire bridge, so the people standing around on the end could jump off? Dramatic certainly, but also rather stupid. Although, I did like the Charles/Eric interaction - Eric's reaction to Charles death was a solid reminder of the friendship they used to have, and about the only character moment in the entire film which rang true.
Speaking of character moments that didn't work, the whole Rogue/Bobby/Kitty thing was really just a waste of space. I would have much preferred they focused on Rogue's decision to take the cure, since that just got completely brushed over in favour of more explosions.
The whole Phoenix deal - I actually liked the idea of the Phoenix being the unconscious manifestation of Jean's repressed power, since it also presents a good explanation of why she killed Scott. If the Phoenix is driven entirely by emotion, then it makes sense she would have the most difficulty controlling the power around the person she loved the most. I was waiting for someone in the movie to make this connection, but it never came. Actually, I spent a lot of this movie waiting for pay-offs that never came.
In conclusion, nice special effects, and overall was not a patch on the other two. Phew. I feel better now, having got that off my chest.
After everyone left last night, I watched ep seven of Dr Who (thanks
cloverfizz!), and have to say, it was rather disappointing too. Not bad, just nothing particularly special. Must have been a night for it.
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(Wolverine with a 'teamwork' speech?!? WTF?)
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Yeah, my thoughts exactly.
You saw the others at the midnight premiere? I'm impressed - we didn't even have one here.
I'm glad I saw the movie, so at least I know how it was - and honestly, if you disasociate it with the previous ones, it's probably a lot better. I just can't help comparing them, and this one comes up short both plot-wise and character-wise.
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The Wolverine personality transplant didn't really hit me the wrong way, because I know he does have leadership skills and such, and he did take care of his own business before he went and took charge. I didn't mind the personality, I *did* mind the screen time. I have never understood why Wolverine is so freaking popular, or why they decide that of all the popular characters, he has to be the one with the most time in the spotlight. They might as well have called this movie Wolverine And Friends, because it was all about him. Although I guess I can't complain too loudly, because if it was him it would have been Storm. And besides being a character I loathe with every fibre of my being, the thing that appeared in these movies is totally not Storm. Just a righteous and annoying placeholder.
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I think the Wolverine popularity has A LOT to do with the actor - it certainly was for me, at the start. Of course, then it became a general love of the character, thanks in part to some very good fanfic. I think once they put him in the spotlight for the first movie, they got rather trapped - all the fangirls expected a Wolverine focus, and it snowballed from there.
I wouldn't have minded a morally ambiguous!Xavier (in fact, I would have prefered it), except that I see that as inconsistent with the previous movies. The same for Wolverine, in a way. I think that anyone with the experience he presumably has, coupled with some of his other character traits, could become a very good leader. I just don't think they showed that progression in the movie.
As for Storm, I with you on the annoying bit, anyway. Which is why I was disappointed that she also got zero development - they could have presented that in a way that would make the character marginally interesting.
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Wolverine is hugely popular among comic folk, which is why they gave him the spotlight in the movies in the first place, I think. The Hugh Jackman Fangirl Brigade probably didn't help anything once he was in there, I agree.
Storm got a lot of time in this film because Halle Berry is an attention whore and wouldn't appear in the film unless she got more screen time. It's like they said, 'fine, but we're still not going to do any more with the character than we would have before'. So she gets the same character development as she would have for half the screen time, and it doesn't work.
(I've been a fan of X-Men for twelve years (though I gave up regular reading about five years ago, I still keep tabs on what everyone's doing), and I've never had a fandom go movie before. It's hard to keep track anymore of who knows what about comics. *sheepish*)
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I've never read an issue of X-men in my life :) Although, I did get a crash course in (most) of the comic characters from friends who are fans. So I have some idea of what's what in the comic world/s, but not really about the finer details of characterisation, and I still have a tendency to get things wrong frequently. I can't keep track of that many alternate universes and stories...
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It was a passable movie, in my opinion, which I enjoyed on a level. Though I can't help but think that in a better director's hands, there would have been less explosions, more character development and none of those day-to-night continuity errors.
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You know, I probably liked the movie more than this review shows (not that that would be hard ^__^) - it would have been an enjoyable waste of time, except I just kept expecting more.
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Mage and I have a general rule these days: if it's not two hours long, it's probably not worth more than two stars. X3: 1.5 hours; we instantly realised we had a problem.
Since there are many things wrong with this movie I'll instead list the few things I liked: moments that gestured to Charles and Eric's friendship, Storm flying, Storm's hair being cool, the advent of the Iceman(!), and other small inconsequential tidbits that aren't related to the film's structural quality at all.
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But Alexander was more than 2 hours long (or at least, it felt more than 2 hours long)...
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